Helicopter crashes while taking child on birthday ride, Georgia cops say. Four injured
Four people were injured when a helicopter got caught in the wind and crashed in northwest Georgia this week, authorities say.
Police arrived at the scene Tuesday, April 12 after the chopper went down near El Nopal Restaurant on state Highway 53 in Calhoun, according to the city’s police department. All survived and walked away with minor injuries.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating and said the Robinson R44 helicopter clipped a power line before landing on its side around 5 p.m., according to a statement sent to McClatchy News. The aircraft was on a joyride celebrating the birthday of one of the children on board when it crashed, Calhoun Police Chief Tony Pyle told WGCL.
The pilot’s “statement was that the wind pushed him around a bit, the rotor clipped the power lines and it may have been entangled, which threw him into the building,” Pyle said, according to the news station.
McClatchy reached out to the Calhoun Police Department on April 13 and was awaiting a response.
Witnesses at a nearby restaurant rushed to help the pilot and passengers after the helicopter went down, WXIA reported. One person said they had to cut the pilot out of his seat belt and “lift him up a little bit” before first responders took him to a hospital for treatment.
The passengers, a father and his two kids, also got out with help from good Samaritans, according to the news station.
The incident comes nearly a week after a small plane crashed on the median of a major highway in Kennesaw, McClatchy News reported. The pilot was the only person on board and escaped without serious injury.
Authorities said the helicopter crash remains under investigation.
Calhoun is about 70 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta.